Stinson case a learning experience

Sep. 17, 2009

Written by

Eric Crawford

The Courier-Journal

That, in essence, was the message that former Pleasure Ridge Park coach Jason Stinson's attorneys kept pounding home Thursday, before a jury came back with a virtual no-huddle verdict: not guilty on all charges in the heat-related death of 15-year-old PRP player Max Gilpin.

“We're talking about a football practice,” defense attorney Alex Dathorne told jurors. “Do you understand that? We've got a man looking at prison time for being a football coach.”

Respectfully, no. Stinson was looking at prison time because one of his players ran until he baked to death on the practice field.

But let's be clear. The jury needed just 90 minutes to return a verdict. In basketball that's called a slam dunk. There were too many other factors involved for jurors to convict Stinson. It wasn't even close. All of us have our own verdicts, of course, but only the jury's matters.

Still, the message that emanates from this trial is not the one that defense attorneys were pushing after the trial Thursday: that this was business as usual in football.

It can't be. That's what this trial was about. Kids dying of preventable causes cannot be accepted as business as usual.

If coaches read this verdict as vindication of careless methods, then the whole thing was a waste. I don't think it was. Kentucky High School Athletic Association associate commissioner Julian Tackett told The Courier-Journal on Thursday that every coach he has talked to around the nation is more aware of the rules regarding heat because of this trial.

That's good news. What should be the message of this case?

That coaches cannot be cavalier about player safety in the heat. The Kentucky General Assembly, to its credit, moved quickly to implement new safety training in the wake of Gilpin's death.

The defense said Thursday that on the August 2008 day that Gilpin collapsed, Stinson “was doing what every coach in the country was doing that day.”

If that's the case, then every coach in the country ought to take a good look at Stinson in that courtroom. Because any one of them could face the same situation if he doesn't take seriously his responsibility to protect players.

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And coaches aren't the only ones. One definite loser in this is Jefferson County Public Schools leadership. JCPS demonstrated in its early failure to investigate, then in an investigative conclusion that ignored player statements that didn't jibe with its company line, that it did not take this incident even close to seriously enough until its feet were held to the fire by the media and police.

It shouldn't have taken that to motivate an organization that's supposed to put kids first.

There's also a lesson for parents and students to watch more carefully what substances players take.

“We're happy to be moving forward,” Dathorne told the television cameras after the verdict.

“Happy” was an unfortunate choice of words. There's no reason to be happy for any of this needless mess. There is nothing to celebrate here.

This ordeal has sparked debate for months. Maybe with the verdict in, we'd all be better off to stop arguing about it and start learning from it.

Beginning with this: From now on, thanks to this groundbreaking trial, when a kid dies because of heat in practice, it's not just football anymore.